About 10 directors in the Federal Capital Territory Administration who have spent over eight years in office have failed to proceed on mandatory retirement almost one month after the newly revised Public Service Rules became operational.

The directors were said to have spent between nine and 12 years on the directorate cadre and were required to turn in their letter of retirement in compliance with the PSR which took effect from July 27, 2023.

Our correspondent reported that the new rule was expected to affect over 500 directors who have stagnated in their positions for eight years or more.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan had in a memo dated July 27, addressed to all Permanent Secretaries, Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation and Heads of Extra Ministerial Departments, ordered strict compliance with the revised rules.

The new rules also introduced a tenure policy for permanent secretaries who are now required to spend four years in office which is renewable subject to performance.

But sources at the FCTA said the Director of Human Resource Management, Bashir Muhammad, and his counterpart at the Christian Pilgrimage Board, Dabara Vingo and others who were affected by the rule have yet to vacate office almost a month after the directive became operational.

It was gathered that Muhammad recently requested a three-month tenure extension from the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola.

An official stated, ‘’No fewer than 10 directors who have spent between nine and 12 years in office have refused to vacate office or retire as stipulated by the revised PSR. In fact, the Director of Human Resource Management has just asked the permanent secretary for three months’ extension in office.

‘’Though the request has not been granted, everyone in FCTA is worried by the refusal of the concerned officials to comply with the rules. We are hoping the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike would intervene speedily.’’

Ironically, Muhammad had in a circular dated August 9, 2023, drew the attention of the leadership of the FCT Administration to the HoS directive on the implementation of the PSR.

The letter with reference number: FCTA/HRM/ 141145/Vol.I was addressed to the Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority; Secretaries, Mandate Secretariats; Heads of Departments, Agencies and Parastatals, Coordinators and Directors, FCTA Common Services Department and all staff.

It read, ‘’I am directed to refer you to the circular number: HCSF/SPSO/268/T3/2/37 of 27th July, 2023 from the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and to inform you that the revised Public Service Rules has become operational in the services of FCTA with effect from 27th July, 2023.

‘’In this regard, you are to ensure full compliance with all the provisions of the revised PSR, particularly the provision of section 020909 on tenure policy for directors or its equivalent on Grade Level 17. Please, ensure strict compliance with the contents of this circular.’’

Muhammad could not be reached on Thursday as calls to his phone indicated it was switched off.

However, the FCTA Director of Press, Muhammed Sule, explained that the concerned officials had been directed to retire via a circular.

A source at the Federal Ministry of Health told one of our correspondents that all the directors affected by the tenure policy have retired as directed by the Head of Service.

“For instance, the Director, Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Morenike Alex-Okoh has left; the Director of Family Health, Dr Boladale Alonge has gone, and many others. The ones I know personally that have retired are about seven,” the source said.

Lamidi Apapa, National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has stated that only candidates he endorsed will be allowed to run in the November 11 governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo.

Apapa stated this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

He claimed that the Court of Appeal’s decision in Owerri had confirmed him as the legitimate National Chairman of the party.

According to reports, the court dismissed the Julius Abure-led faction and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Apapa’s faction’s governorship candidates for the election.

You will recall that on the April 5 the FCT High court restrained Abure and others from parading themselves as national officers of the party. As a result, the party appointed the Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, as the acting national chairman of the party pursuant to its constitution.

Sequel to that the party under my leadership wrote to INEC changing its date of primary election earlier scheduled by Abure from April 15 to April 16. Notwithstanding the fact that he was under a restraining order, Abure still went ahead to conduct his primaries for Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa on those dates, he said.

Apapa said, on the other hand, his faction conducted primaries on April 16, making it two primaries conducted by the LP in the states.

Peeved by the primary conducted by me, a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took my candidate to court whilst maintaining that Abure’s candidates were the authentic ones. The case was frantically defended, and the Federal High court, Owerri Division, declared the primaries conducted by me as the authentic candidate as Abure was under a restraining order as at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries, he said.

Apapa stated that the court recognized him as the legitimate Chairman of the party.

He stated that, dissatisfied with the FHC decision, Abure’s candidates, including the winner of his primaries, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal.

He added that the court of appeals had also upheld the Federal High Court’s ruling that Abure’s conduct was contemptuous because he was subject to a restraining order at the time of the primaries.

That restraining order is still in force even at the time this judgment was delivered, he said.

The Chairperson of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the financial dispute between the Falcons and the Nigeria Football Federation, Blessing Onu, has ordered the football body to produce payment slips for women’s national team players and officials attending the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.

She stated this in Abuja on Thursday while questioning NFF president Ibrahim Gusau, who was present before the committee.

Onu requested that the NFF provide documents detailing how the Falcons were funded for the 2019 Women’s World Cup and a breakdown of match bonuses and payment slips for the team’s 23 players and coaching staff by August 30.

Gusau responded that no funding was available for participation but that the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand would provide $960,000 to all 32 qualifying countries.

According to him, these countries should use the FIFA preparation money to prepare their teams for the World Cup.

We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, he said.

The NFF president stated that they typically received funding from the Confederation of African Football and FIFA, and that no payment was received from the Federal Government for its staff and officials.

He stated that FIFA covered the federation’s operational costs.

The Confederation of African Football provides $250,000 per annum as subvention funds, he said.

Onu accused Gusau of obstructing the investigation into the Falcons’ allegations of non-payment of allowances and entitlements.

Her statement came in response to the NFF president’s alleged refusal to accept the invitation of the ad hoc committee investigating the clash between the Falcons and NFF officials.

Onuh said;

It’s obvious that the NFF president is frustrating this ad hoc committee from investigating the allegations levelled against it.

The National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in Lagos has overturned the election of Seyi Sowunmi of the Labour Party as a member of the Ojo Federal Constituency.

Honourable Lanre Ogunyemi, former Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the constituency by the court on Thursday.

Ogunyemi had challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of his Labour Party opponent as election winner.

The three-member panel agreed with the petitioner that the Labour Party’s candidate was not qualified to run in the elections.

As a result, Ogunyemi was declared the winner.

The panel’s members included Chairman Justice Ashu A. Ewah, Justice Abdullahi A. Ozegya, and Justice M. A. Sambo.

This is another setback for the Labour Party, which won 38 House of Representatives seats in the 2023 elections.

Last month, the Delta State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Asaba dismissed Ngozi Okolie, a lawmaker representing Aniocha/Oshimili Constituency in the National Assembly’s lower legislative chamber.

The tribunal declared Okolie and the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Ndudi Elumelu, the February 25 National Assembly election winners.

The three-member tribunal, led by Justice A.Z. Mussa, declared in a 107-page judgment that the LP candidate was wrongfully declared the winner by INEC.

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan has reacted to the loss of her world women’s 100m hurdles crown to Jamaica’s Danielle Williams on Thursday in Budapest.

Speaking after the race, Amusan said she will be back “stronger” next year.

It was quite “a journey getting into the final” despite all I had gone through in the last couple of weeks, the track and field sensation told journalists after the race.

“It has been God, my team and my family,” the 2022 gold winner told reporters.

She thanked all her fans for supporting her through the ups and downs, promising that she will be back stronger.

Amusan hopes to get her “medal” back next year.

“Yeah, it’s a tough one; nobody likes to lose but considering what I have gone through in the past couple of months, I’m so grateful that I came out,” she enthused.

Williams, the 30-year-old, who previously won in Beijing in 2015, timed 12.43 seconds to edge out Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico (12.44sec) with Kendra Harrison of the United States taking bronze (12.46).

Amusan and 2019 winner Nia Ali were never in the hunt, finishing sixth and last respectively.

Amusan was cleared of doping violations with the provisional suspension on her lifted ahead of the championship.

Last month, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended the Nigerian track and field athlete for three missed whereabouts failures.

The suspension was announced after it was discovered that Amusan had missed three drug tests within a 12-month period. This charge carried a two-year suspension term, even if an athlete has never failed a drug test.

Ultimately, the Disciplinary Tribunal announced the verdict which stated, “Tobi Amusan has not committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period”.

The claims that Julius Abure has been sacked as the national chairman of the Labour Party by the Appeal Court are false, the party hierarchy has said.

The party said the judgement of the appellate court is, in fact, a fatal blow to the suit of the Lamidi Apapa-led faction.

LP leadership said the Court of Appeal in Owerri dismissed the appeal filed by one Mr Basil Maduka, who it said is contending for the Labour Party governorship candidacy for Imo State.

The LP, therefore, called on members, supporters and the general public to distance themselves from what it described as “falling and compromised members of the party”, who it said have since been shoved out of the party.

The party in a statement issued on Thursday by the LP’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, claimed that Apapa’s camp had misinformed the public by twisting the judgement of the appellate court.

There were reports in some newspaper on Wednesday that the Court of Appeal in Owerri on Thursday sacked Julius Abure as Labour Party National Chairman.

It was also alleged that the court, in the same judgement, recognised Lamidi Apapa as the National Chairman of the party.

According to the statement, the court held that the appeal was not necessary as the decision of the trial court was in its favour and that mere comments of the trial judge in the matter was not a judgement and, therefore, should be discountenanced.

Ifoh explained that the Labour Party had asked the Court of Appeal to quash the comments of the trial court in the Federal High Court in Owerri and also told the court that Senator Athan Achonu won the party’s primaries.

He further added that “It is, therefore, important to state that neither the Federal High Court Owerri nor the Court of Appeal Owerri, which sat in Abuja today, made any orders in the matter other than for lack of locus standi against the plaintiff (Basil Maduka).”

The party rather insisted that “the status quo remains with Senator Athan Achonu as the validly nominated candidate of Labour Party for 2023 Imo governorship election”.

Explaining further, Ifoh stated that the Court of Appeal judgement and the endorsement of Senator Achonu by its national leader Peter Obi, Abia State Governor Alex Otti, the Labour Party National Chairman Julius Abure and other stakeholders and party members, have settled the gubernatorial ticket issue.

A new report has revealed that a rising number of Nigerians are falling victim to a deceitful scheme that involves paying substantial amounts in naira for job opportunities that do not actually exist within the United Kingdom’s skilled worker visa system.

The recent investigative exposé by Sky News, released on Wednesday, highlighted the distressing situation of Nigerian migrants coerced by “travelling agents” into paying exorbitant sums to enter the UK, only to find themselves stranded and without the promised employment upon their arrival.

According to the report, a Nigerian woman, who paid £10,000 to an “agent” for a skilled worker visa that was supposed to secure her a job as a carer in the UK, has been left stranded.

The unnamed woman said she arrived only to find out the job did not exist upon her arrival.

The report showed “how the skilled worker visa system is being abused, with middlemen allegedly being paid huge sums of money to arrange jobs in the UK as carers that do not exist. Many of those who can’t get work are struggling to survive, turning to food banks and even sleeping rough.”

The founder of the Nigerian Community Centre in Rochdale, Mary Adekugbe, says those on skilled worker visas now needing support is a big issue that is increasing her workload—something she describes as “shameful”.

“About 15 of the 35–40 people who generally come to the weekly food bank have skilled worker visas. We are overwhelmed. People are desperate. It’s so worrying,” she said.

Also, a community volunteer, Jones Adekube, lamented the situation of another homeless lady who was too shy to speak with the correspondent.

Adekube said, “Last week we gave her bread and tuna because that’s what she can eat easily without cooking or warming.

“She did some work when she came in. Initially, they gave her one shift a week, which is 12 hours a week. As time went on, there were no shifts.”

According to the report, in the 12 months to March 2023, 170,993 skilled worker visas have been awarded. In the health and care sector alone, grants have increased over two and a half times and represent over half of all work visas issued in the same period.

The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has confirmed that Hannatu Musawa, the minister of art, culture and creative economy, is a serving corps member.

This follows a claim by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a civil society organisation, that Musawa is undertaking the one-year mandatory youth service scheme while she is still a member of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.

Eddy Megwa, director of press and public relations at the NYSC headquarters, confirmed to TheCable on Thursday, that the minister is a corps member.

“Yes she is a serving corp member,” Megwa wrote in a message to TheCable when he was contacted for enquiries.

On Monday, President Tinubu swore in 45 ministers, including Musawa as members of the federal executive council (FEC).

But in a statement on Wednesday, HURIWA claimed that the culture minister is a member of NYSC, whose place of primary assignment is a law firm in Abuja.

When contacted by TheCable, the minister did not answer calls put through her mobile phone, nor did she reply to messages sent to get her response.

The rights group asked the management of the NYSC to compel Musawa to focus on her national youth service or the ministerial appointment.

“HURIWA wondered why the correct status of Musawa wasn’t made known to the members of the public before the senate sensationally failed to screen her as it should,” the statement reads.

“HURIWA wonders about the kind of scrutiny being conducted by the Department of State Services so much so that it wasn’t disclosed that the minister is actually a youth corper.”

The rights group alleged that years back, Musawa abandoned her NYSC in Ebonyi state but later showed interest in completing it.

The organisation added that the minister was mobilised this year and got posted to a law firm in Abuja before President Tinubu picked her as a nominee.

“She was confirmed by the senate without proper screening and sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as minister of arts, “HURIWA further alleged.

BACKGROUND

In September 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Musawa as a national commissioner representing the north-west geopolitical zone on the national pension commission board.

But the senate in October of the same year rejected her nomination over a report from the committee on establishment and public service matters that Musawa failed to provide her NYSC certificate or exemption letter.

An NYSC certificate or exemption letter is a mandatory requirement for those seeking public offices on the basis of election or appointment.

When the culture minister appeared before the senate during the ministerial screening, the lawmakers did not ask her any questions regarding her NYSC certificate.

WHAT THE NYSC ACT SAYS

However, according to the NYSC act, those who are 30 years and above are exempted from taking part in the mandatory one-year scheme.

Others who are excluded are those who have served in the armed forces of the federation or the Nigeria police force for a period of more than nine months, or a staff member of the Nigerian security organisation, the state security service, the national intelligence agency, the defence intelligence service or anyone who has been conferred with any national honour.

…Says Two-Year Loan Repayment Period Too Short

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the members of the House of Representatives to amend the Student Loan Act such that access to loans would become less stringent for interested students.

The union added that the criteria for access to the loan according to the Act were too stringent, and the 2-year time frame for repayment should be reviewed to 4 – 5 years as that was too short.

The NANS President, Usman Barambu, made the call while speaking at the legislative summit on student loans and access to higher education, organized by the ad-hoc committee on Thursday in Abuja.

He asked that the list of guarantors needed to access the loans be looked into, as most students would be unable to meet that requirement.

Barambu also urged the House to include students on the board as well as representatives of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, as opposed to only members of the National Universities Commission (NUC).

“Student loan is for us and there is no student representation on the board. The board only captured NUC sidelining the polytechnic and colleges of education, they should all be included for fairness and equity.

“Also, the method of payment should be looked into as most students are not able to find their ground financially two years after graduation, it should be revised to 4 to 5 years. The Act also gives no room for forgiveness in cases of death, especially for security officers, that should also be looked into,” he said.

The Nigerian Telecommunications Commission on Thursday disclosed that Nigeria was rated eleventh in terms of Internet penetration and seventh in terms of mobile phone usage worldwide.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta, said this at the opening ceremony of the two-day Emerging Technology Forum for the Telecommunications Industry in Abuja.

The EVC, who spoke through the Head, Spectrum Database Management, NCC, Abraham Oshadami, stated that the worldwide data gathered by the NRI team demonstrated that digital transformation was a global need in order to optimise the social and economic effects of the digital era.

He added that the NRI examined the performance of 131 economies across four categories: technology (infrastructure), governance, people, and effect.

He said, “Nigeria is a telecommunications powerhouse, accounting for 82 per cent of the continent’s telecom subscribers and 29 per cent of the continent’s internet consumption.”

“Our country ranks eleventh in the world for Internet penetration and seventh in mobile phone usage.

“The NRI team’s global data shows that digital transformation is a global imperative for maximising the social and economic effects of the digital era. Despite these remarkable metrics, our Network Readiness Index (NRI) ranking for 2022 of 109th out of 131 countries is both humbling and challenging.”

Danbatta went on to state that, as representatives of social and economic development in the country, prioritising network preparedness is not only a strategic need but also a mission.

“It can create new inequalities, which can hinder the ability of younger generations to engage in the digital economy, but it also remains a powerful way to do more with less at all levels of income. Formal education is evolving, and metrics are important to support informed policy making.”